Research - the origins of theatre

" The origin of theatre is ritual..."

Theatre is thought to have originated as a performance of ritual activities that did not require initiation on the part of the spectator. Though this similarity of early theatre to ritual is not supported by Aristotle, who defined theatre in contrast to the performances of sacred mysteries: theatre did not require the spectator to fast, drink the kykeon, or march in a procession. However theatre did resemble the sacred mysteries in the sense that it brought purification and healing to the spectator by means of a vision, the theama; the physical location of performances was accordingly named theatron.

Theatron = place where spectators watch a performance - the most important place like this in ancient Greece was the theatre of Dionysus, an open air theatre supposedly created by Dionysus, the god.

 

 

Though the first 'theatre' may have occured in Egypt, on the banks of the Nile in a ceremony celebrating the dead. Regardless, it seems that the origins involve an outdoor setting, close to nature.

 

However, for the past 500 years the word 'theatre' usually means an enclosed (walls, roof) building which allows artists to exercise heightened aesthetic control by cutting out the natural environment. "Theatres since the Renaissance have become temples to artiface."
Theatre that does occur outdoors is usually staged at night, under lights, with amplified and modified sound. We are used to places that focus our attention on the performance at the expense of the natural world. Not the case with the original theatre...
The fact that the Athenians' theatre shut out neither natural nor civic environments speaks volumes about their theatrical aesthetic - aggressively public, part of the ongoing life of the city and subject to weather, acted out on a beaten earth orchestra with the land, sea, and sky beyond. Drawing on popular myths, tragedy enacted old stories against a backdrop of nature and the city - their progress measured by the narrative but also by the sun as it crossed the sky. There are many references to the sun in Greek theatre.
- Rush Rehm, 'Radical Theatre: Greek Theatre and the Modern World': Gerald Duckworth & Co. 2003.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_theatre
http://www.cwu.edu/~robinsos/ppages/resources/Theatre_History/Theahis_1.html
http://www.theatrehistory.com/origins/